Ethiopia Registers 10.5 Percent Economic Growth: PM Hailemariam

Addis Ababa, April 23, 2013 — (WIC) — Ethiopia’s economy has grown by 10.5 per cent on average during the first two years of the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) period, according to Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn.

Though the growth is not as expected, it is immense, he told the parliament. It is also one of the fastest growing economies in the Sub-Saharan Africa region.

PM Hailemariam said that the growth fast compared to the 7 per cent economic growth required to attain the Millennium Development Goals target by 2015.

Regarding inflation, the premier said the government was able to reduce inflation to 7.6 per cent (single digit) by supplying basic commodities in abundant and controlling money supply, he said.

As far as agricultural productivity is concerned, some 22.9 million tonnes of agricultural output were reaped from 12.27 million hectares of land covered with seeds during the past 8 months, PM Halemariam said.

He said foreign export trade generated 2 billion US dollars in the reported period, showing 54.5 per cent performance compared to the 3.7 billion US dollars projected target.

He attributed the decrease in export performance mainly to the decline in interest for gold and flower at the global market and failure to supply some products in bulk.

As regards to infrastructure, the implementation of Ethiopia’s mega projects is progressing as planned he said citing the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Gibe-III and the Addis Ababa Light Railway a case in point.

According to PM Hailemariam, some 19.6 per cent of construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has been completed and efforts would be made to raise the performance to 26 percent by the end of this budget year.

Gibe-III hydro power project is now 71 percent complete, he said, adding some 94 percent of the target set to construct 7, 546-km rural road has so far been completed.

Regarding the 37-km Addis Ababa Light Railway project, out of the 40 per cent projected target for this budget year, some 20 percent has so far been completed, the premier said, the 800-km Addis Ababa-Meiso-Dewel-Dire Dawa-Djibouti railway line which link the country’s various corridors with port is going as planned, he indicated.
In his report concerning education, he said efforts would be made to repeat the 94 per cent girl’s primary education enrolment rate success in technical and vocational education sector.

Remarkable achievements were also registered in the health sector and many ambulances were distributed during the past 8 months to further scale up the achievement, he said.

Ethiopia’s foreign relation policies with neighboring countries are based on mutual interests, he said, adding the efforts it made to connect the region with infrastructure and the forefront role it played to resolve conflicts at various areas in the continent has born fruit.